Technology
RSSAlaska tech: startups, consumer tech, AI applications, space launches (Pacific Spaceport Kodiak), research computing, data platforms
FCC reconsiders how it sets rural clinic telecom subsidies, 97% of which go to Alaska
Alaska gets 97% of a federal subsidy that helps rural clinics pay for connectivity, and the FCC wants to rethink how it's calculated. Comments due Wednesday.
by Walter AlaskaNews18h ago3 min read
FCC weighs new ways to set prices for rural Alaska clinics' internet and phone service
A federal telecom subsidy that's about 97% Alaska is up for a rewrite. The FCC wants comments by Wednesday on how rural clinic internet prices get set.
by Melinda Communities.News3d ago2 min read
Aniak's Bush-Tell has drawn more than $12 million in federal support to serve river villages
An Aniak phone company has drawn more than $12 million in federal support to keep calls and internet running in villages along the Kuskokwim and Yukon.
by Melinda Communities.News3d ago2 min read
Homer asks FCC to keep internet discount that covers most of the public library's bill
Homer's library gets $11,970 a year from a federal internet discount the FCC is reviewing. The City Council would like it left alone, please.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 4d ago2 min read
The FCC review that could end E-Rate is filed under children and screens
The federal review that could end E-Rate is filed under a docket about children and screens. The program does not pay for a single screen at all.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Four Yukon villages get money for broadband design, not construction
Four Yukon River villages are getting broadband drawings, not broadband. The trunk line they would connect to is now 17 months behind schedule.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read
Federal grant of $500,000 would replace generators on the mountaintop relays that carry Akhiok's internet
A $500,000 federal grant will replace aging generators and batteries at two mountain relays that carry internet to Akhiok, a remote village on Kodiak Island.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2w ago2 min read
Fiber easement for four Koyukuk River villages grows to 96 acres, and comments close Oct. 12
Tanana Chiefs Conference expanded a fiber optic easement to 96 acres to bring high-speed internet to four Koyukuk River villages, with public comments due Oct. 12.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago1 min read
The University of Alaska owns the look of a Fairbanks man's pliers
A Fairbanks man designed a pair of pliers and the university owns how they look for 15 years. If it passes on selling them, he gets them back.
by Alaska News2w ago1 min read
Homer's library is asking the state to cover part of its internet bill
Homer's library wants $5,130 from the state toward its internet bill. That is less than last year, for the pleasant reason that the bill went down.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2w ago1 min read
E-Rate payments send $335,276 to broadband in three Alaska towns
Keeping King Salmon connected took $302,400 in a single federal payment. The FCC is now reviewing whether to keep the program that paid for it.
by Melinda Communities.News3w ago2 min read
Rural Alaska's internet funding is changing hands as an old federal program ends
The federal program funding phone and internet in remote Alaska is ending, and three co-ops just drew some of its last payments — $14.86 million.
by Melinda Communities.News3w ago2 min read
GCI is buying the only fiber link connecting Alaska's Arctic coast to the state
GCI, Alaska's biggest telecom, is buying the only wired link between the Arctic coast and the rest of the state for $310 million, a route rivals depend on.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3w ago2 min read
Alaska schools fight FCC proposals that could cut their internet lifeline
Alaska schools rely on $200 million a year in discounted internet through E-Rate, and education groups are fighting FCC proposals that could cut it back.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 3w ago2 min read
A $2.5 million geothermal training grant for Unalaska sits 3 percent spent
Unalaska abandoned its Makushin geothermal project in May 2025, but a $2.5 million federal training grant tied to it remains open and largely unspent with only $75,000 spent so far.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min read
A rural Alaska phone company says a subsidy cut costs $185 per connection
Alaska Power & Telephone told the FCC that ending a rural subsidy would cost the company $1.1 million yearly across its 40 remote communities.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min read
Unalaska paid for library internet for three years before the council approved it
Unalaska ran a library internet contract for three years without the council vote its code required. The council approved it this month, going back to 2023.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago2 min read
Alaska superintendents ask FCC not to cut school internet subsidy
Alaska superintendents told the FCC that districts reachable only by plane or boat would lose the discount that makes school internet affordable.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min read
UAA patents insulation grown from Alaska birch sawdust and a native fungus
A UAA team has patented insulation you can grow from Alaska birch sawdust and a native wild mushroom — a biodegradable answer to the foam that never rots.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 1mo ago2 min read
A young weaver 3D-printed his own form to make a cedar bark hat
A Bartlett High grad wove himself a cedar bark hat using a form he designed and 3D-printed at a tribal lab — work that led to an internship and a paid job.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Alaska's mobile service through 2034 gets locked in next week
Alaska's mobile carriers must lock in coverage and speed commitments running through 2034 by Sept. 1, based on maps frozen at the end of 2024.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Drones are dropping chaff over Nenana to try to stop lightning
A Vancouver startup is dropping metallic chaff from drones over Nenana to try to stop lightning before it starts wildfires. The flights run through Sept. 30.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago3 min read
A UAF mathematician builds software to untangle interbreeding species' family trees
A UAF mathematician won a grant to build software untangling interbreeding species' family trees — the same math used to trace viruses like COVID-19.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min read
Unalaska council ratifies a library internet contract three years late
Unalaska's library ran internet for three years on a contract the council never approved. The council ratified it Tuesday, 5-0, without discussion.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
UAF's satellite water-depth mapping wins NSF money to test whether it can become a product
UAF won a $50,000 NSF award to test whether its satellite water-depth mapping can become a product, a cheaper way to chart the many U.S. waters still unmapped.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
Alaska will build software to help inspect its bridges
Alaska's transportation department won a $126,917 federal grant to build computer vision tools that read bridge photos and flag defects for inspectors.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
Alaska will test whether Starlink can keep its road crews online in the bush
Alaska will test whether Starlink can keep its road crews and equipment connected in the bush, in a state already home to more than 60,000 of the dishes.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
Akiachak is in line for fiber broadband, one of seven roadless villages getting wired
Akiachak is in line for fiber broadband, one of seven roadless Y-K Delta villages being wired in a project reaching nearly 3,000 long-unserved households.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Unalaska council retroactively approves a three-year-old library internet contract
Unalaska City Council approved a five-year internet contract for the public library at $108,876 yearly, with federal E-Rate funding covering about half the cost.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
Alaska schools could face a choice between internet and teachers if a federal subsidy is cut
A federal review could cut E-Rate, the subsidy that sent $203.5M to Alaska schools and libraries last year — and school boards warn it's internet or teachers.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Senate bill co-led by Murkowski targets AI chatbot toys' risks to children
AI toys can be sold with no testing of what their chatbots tell kids — and testing found some explaining where to find pills and matches. A bipartisan Senate bill, co-led by Murkowski, targets that gap.
by Alaska News1mo ago2 min read
Can a bacterium pull rare earths out of coal waste? Alaska researchers just got $4.7M to find out
Can a microbe mine coal waste for rare earths? Alaska researchers got $4.7M to find out — chasing a domestic source for minerals the U.S. mostly imports.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min read
A UAF mathematician is building better tools for understanding networks
A UAF mathematician won a $150,000 NSF grant to build better tools for understanding complex networks, from how they're structured to faster ways to solve problems on them.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
North Slope phone co-op moves to keep its Deadhorse airport site
The North Slope's phone co-op wants five more years for its tower and shop on Deadhorse Airport land, a no-bid extension of an existing $14,250-a-year lease.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
For Alaska's rural broadband, federal permits are the bottleneck
Alaska has over $1B to build rural broadband. In a state 60% federal land, industry says the real holdup isn't money — it's getting permits to build.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read
NuCube, Alaska Fund launch NuAlaska nuclear initiative
NuCube Energy and Alaska Fund launched NuAlaska to develop nuclear microreactors for remote Alaska communities where fuel costs and weather make power expensive.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
The AI money came first. The data center moratorium came Thursday.
Days after AI money turned up in his filings, Kreiss-Tomkins called for a data center moratorium — one a governor has no power to directly impose.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Calista seeks airport land at Kwethluk, Napakiak to bring hardwired broadband
Calista Corporation wants to build broadband shelters on airport land in Kwethluk and Napakiak to bring hardwired internet to both villages.
by Alaska News2mo ago1 min read
Begich votes to prohibit separate credit-card codes for gun stores
Begich helped pass a bill barring card networks from tagging gun-store purchases with a firearms-only code. In gun-heavy Alaska, that's a lot of receipts.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Alaska won up to $160M to hunt critical minerals with AI and microbes
UAF will lead a new NSF innovation engine — up to $160M over 10 years — using AI and microbes to find Alaska's critical minerals. SCIENCE!!
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
